Manipal Watches Longest Lunar Eclipse of The Year 3 days before the world!

One of the longest total lunar eclipses will occur on the night of June 15 and be visible everywhere in India. The Moon stands over the southern Indian Ocean as it passes through the central dark umbra of the Earth’s shadow, plunging deeper into the shadow than during any eclipse since 2000. This may well result in an unusually dark eclipse, with the Moon’s disc turning a deep reddish-brown as all direct sunlight is blocked.

Wednesday’s total eclipse of the Moon may be the most striking for years but observers in Manipal had a preview of this event 3 days (rather nights) before the rest of the world! How so do you ask? It’s because of the unending, nerve-wracking, copious rainfall that has been blasting the scorched Manipal earth since the past few weeks! Manipal, hasn’t seen the moon for quite sometime and Bhondoo has filed a missing celestial body report with the astronomy club of MIT!! Add to this the friendly guys at the KEB, who at the slightest hint of thunder/lightning/ or someone sneezing at the workplace, switch of the power supply to the entire town, and Manipal is bathed in an eery darkness!

Shiv Balath, who lives in Indrali and was recently in the news for the invention of a weather manipulation device said: “The two evening cuts were the worst as no electric means no hot water or ability to cook. The street lights were out too which, combined with the non-existant traffic lights at Tiger Circle, was quite worrying.”